Julie’s best of British (again)

JULIE Forrest has bowled over her opponents by claiming her third British Indoor Bowling Singles title.

And the Teviotdale Indoor bowler wrote herself into the record books as only the second female to retain the principal singles event.

She told the Hawick News: “I’m absolutely delighted. It’s not easy to retain the title, but I had a feeling it would be harder than that. It was good and I played well.”

At the event at Stanley, County Durham, Julie defeated Carol Ingrouille from the Channel Islands 21-14 in the semi-final before coming up against Ireland’s Bernie O’Neil in the final.

After an excellent start she was up by 10 shots to nil after six ends. Her opponent hit back with a single, but Julie replied with scores of 1, 1, 1, to extend her advantage to 13-1.

O’Neil added to her tally and after 20 ends completed the score was 19-11 for the Hawick bowler. But two ends later the match and the title was secured as Julie added two singles to make the final score 21-11 in her favour.

She said: “I was 10-0 up before I knew where I was and the whole time I kept on telling myself to stay focused. In the end I felt as though I was never in trouble.”

Julie is now preparing to play in the World Indoor Bowls at Islwyn, Wales, next month.

And she has no plans to hang up her bowls any time soon.

She added: “I feel that if I can keep playing at this level and as long as I’m still competing, then I’ll keep going for as long as I can.”

n In the triples the Teviotdale triple, consisting of Julie, her mum Betty Gibson and Joyce Dickie narrowly lost out in the final of the British Isles triples. Full story p28